Where do you even find 4,000 pillows?

Tags:

An attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest pillow fight was scheduled for 1 a.m., promoted by a DJ dance duo — and at a rave no less. I was a little skeptical. Originally I thought it was an afternoon event when the organizers said it would be around 1 o’clock but needed clarification when I found out it was attached to a Halloween-themed concert and was told that the effort to break the current record of 3,706 participants set in 2008 would be attempted after midnight.

As I arrived a couple of hours before the event at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, there were hundreds of people lined up around the building waiting to get in, all dressed up for Halloween. The promoters told me they were almost at their capacity of 4,800 and it was clear that there was going to be a lot of people who were not going to get in.

It was a crazy scene: a sea of people, the music thumping and the laser light show was at full throttle. Organizers brought in dozens of huge garbage bags full of pillows and threw them out into the crowd. After a couple of hours of waiting, there was a break in the music and a representative from Guinness took to the microphone to read out the rules. Basically, all they had to do was keep the pillows in their hands and fight for a full minute. The music was cranked up and the pillows became a blur. The bass from the music was so heavy, it felt like an earthquake. My whole body was shaking. As quickly as it began, it was over.

A loud cheer from the crowd roared as they cranked the music back up again. It was now around 1 a.m. The DJ screamed, “Are you ready to go for another two hours?” Not me, I was out of there.

It was a very young crowd and they seamlessly slipped right back into the dance music, as if the record attempt was nothing more than a speed bump to the music. All tallied, there were 3,813 participants and a new record was in the books.